Police Use Facebook to Tell Mom Her Son Died — and She Doesn’t See Message for Weeks

A Georgia mother is upset not only over the death of her 30-year-old son but the method by which she was informed he was killed in a car accident. Police attempted to contact her through a Facebook message, which she didn’t see for weeks.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reported Anna Lamb-Creasey of Clayton County explaining that her son, Rickie Lamb, died at 11 p.m. on January 24, but that she didn’t find out until February 14. Why? Because the county police sent a message via Facebook that landed in her box called “other.” AJC continued that Lamb-Creasey said she didn’t open the message because she thought it was spam, reading it was from an unknown sender going by “Misty Hancock” and it seemed to have a photo of an Atlanta rapper.

This message was sent to Lamb-Creasey. (Image: WSBTV screenshot)

Police Sgt. Kevin Hughes said that the investigators did try to reach the family using the traditional methods but couldn’t. He noted to AJC that Rickie Lamb’s identification did not have contact information for his family.

As for the “Misty Hancock” profile, Hughes told AJC it’s an account used by the department in investigations. He wasn’t sure why it was used in this case.

AJC stated that it was Lamb-Creasey’s daughter, who also received the message on Facebook, who was the first to receive the heartbreaking news after she opened it.

“At the end of the day, Facebook helped me find my son, but police could have done a better job of finding me,” Lamb-Creasey told AJC. She said acknowledged that she was in the process of moving but noted they could have found her at her job.

Lamb-Creasey is upset she found out about her son’s death via Facebook after weeks thinking he was missing. (Image: WSBTV screenshot)

The department apologized to the family, but Lamb-Creasey said the amount of time that lapsed was unacceptable.

“It should not have taken 20 days for them to reach me,” she said according to AJC.

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